Affinity chromatography plays a key role in the research, development and production of proteins including monoclonal antibodies. A filler for affinity chromatography generally contains a solid phase carrier having ligands that selectively bind to target molecules. As the ligands on the solid phase carrier used in affinity chromatography show high selectivity to the target molecules, the affinity chromatography enables economic purification with excellent yield at a high speed, as compared to other chromatographic techniques such as ion-exchange chromatography, gel filtration chromatography, and reverse phase liquid chromatography.
Agarose particle is mainly used for the solid phase carrier for a filler for affinity chromatography (Patent Documents 1 and 2). Due to their high hydrophilicity, the agarose particle shows high ligand activity, and high dynamic binding capacity for the target molecule.
Porous particle consisting of a styrene-divinylbenzene polymer may be used as another solid phase carrier for a filler for affinity chromatography (Patent Documents 3 and 4). The porous particles consisting of a polymer of vinyl monomers such as styrene-divinylbenzene generally shows high elastic modulus and excellent pressure characteristics.
Furthermore, in order to balance high dynamic binding capacity and pressure characteristics in a filler for affinity chromatography, a particle in which sugar chains such as agarose are bound to the fine pores of porous particles consisting of a polymer of a vinyl monomer has been suggested (Patent Document 5).
Meanwhile, there have been the cases in which porous particles consisting of a polymer of a hydroxyl group-containing cross-linkable vinyl monomer is used in chromatography; however, these examples are all suitable only for gel filtration chromatography or reverse phase liquid chromatography for analytical purposes (Patent Documents 6 to 8).